


Of Cybermen, Fish-People, and Haircuts

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, mostly scenes that fit within episodes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 19:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9840674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: The Doctor cuts Jamie's hair at the most inopportune of times.Set during the Underwater Menace, the Moonbase, the Enemy of the World, and an unspecified point in series 6.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for [keatulie](keatulie.tumblr.com), in response to [this post](http://keatulie.tumblr.com/post/131406292300/jawnnwatson-waves-shyly-sorry-if-this-has).

Don’t worry, Duchess,” Ben was saying loudly. “Now the Doctor’s here, everything’s sorted. He’s bound to have a plan. Isn’t that right, Doctor?”

“Hmm?” The Doctor was merely staring into the corner of the room, tapping one finger against his lips thoughtfully. “Yes, I’m sure, Ben.”

Polly shot Jamie a look which clearly said _"He’s got no idea, does he?"_. Jamie simply shrugged in reply. He was convinced that the Doctor had already devised a plan to get them out of danger, and that he had in fact been five steps ahead of everyone else all along. But Ben and Polly had known the Doctor for longer than he had and if they doubted him…

“Come on then, Doctor!” Ben pressed on. “You must have some idea.”

Seemingly alarmed at being pressed to give an answer, the Doctor glanced around the room hastily. “Of course I do!” he exclaimed. “Sit down over there, Jamie.”

Jamie sat down on the indicated chunk of rock automatically, then leapt up again as if burnt. “Why?”

“Just sit down for me,” the Doctor repeated slightly impatiently, rummaging in his pockets for something. “Please?” He looked up with an expression which would not have been out of place on a pleading five-year-old, and Jamie sat back down obediently.

“Now, then.” The Doctor smiled to himself, producing a small pair of scissors from his pocket and advancing on Jamie, who slid backwards hastily. “Hold still, Jamie.” He tugged Jamie forwards by the front of his shirt and set about cutting his hair, of all things. Little clumps of it fell onto the stone and slipped onto the floor, the Doctor humming happily as he worked. Tensed in embarrassment and a touch of fear, Jamie scanned the others’ faces, seeing his confusion reflected there. What could cutting his hair have to do with fish people and the imminent explosion of the world?

He felt as if he had sat there for eternity, flinching at the slide of metal against his skin as the Doctor cut strand after strand, when at last the snipping noises stopped, and the Doctor straightened up. “Yes,” he murmured to himself. “Yes, much better. Now, what was it you were saying about a plan?”

* * *

“Would this help?” Polly called to the Doctor, pulling a clipboard out of the cupboard in the medical bay. “It looks like… Yes! An inventory of the base.”

The Doctor rushed over to her. “Excellent!” He seized the clipboard and riffled through the attached pages intently. “Oh, no, no,” he said after a moment. “This is several months old, at least – look at the date. What if they’ve had a new shipment of supplies since then? Is there anything else?”

Ducking back inside the cupboard, Polly searched through a few more files, but found nothing. “It’s a start, though,” she said encouragingly. The Doctor handed the clipboard back to her, wandering back into the medical bay. “Hey, Doctor -”

“We just don’t have the time,” the Doctor said, sighing. “Perhaps then – and with the right resources – we could do it.” He was leaning heavily against Jamie’s bed, head bowed in something that Polly thought might be exhaustion. Certainly not resignation to their fate – that was an expression she hoped never to see on the Doctor. If the Doctor gave up, then there was surely no escape from whatever danger they faced.

The Doctor had reached over and was running his fingers through Jamie’s hair, rearranging the still freshly-cut strands, smoothing them over the bandage on his forehead and pressing them back into place where they had fallen into disarray. Pulling his handkerchief out of his pocket, he wiped Jamie’s brow, his expression one of tenderness and worry.

“He’ll be fine,” she told the Doctor reassuringly. They said he should be recovering soon.”

The Doctor looked up from his contemplation of Jamie’s face. “Hm? Oh, yes. Good.”

Smiling slightly, Polly turned back towards the cupboard, hoping against all the odds that it held something which could help them. Perhaps they could win this battle after all.

* * *

Glancing around the interrogation room and wringing his hands worriedly, the Doctor’s gaze finally settled on Jamie.

“Oh. Oh, dear,” he murmured. “Jamie, would you come here for a moment?” Before Jamie could respond, the Doctor had reached over and taken him by the sleeve, pulling him towards the desk and pushing him down so he was sat atop it. “There. Hold still.”

Victoria rolled her eyes at this, whilst Bruce simply looked baffled, a hulking, confused presence in the corner. Jamie cast a resigned look at Victoria as, yet again, the Doctor pulled scissors out of his pocket.

“Do we have tae do this now?” he asked as the Doctor tugged frustratedly on a particularly stubborn knot.

“The boy’s got a point,” Bruce put in. “I thought investigating Salamander was our first priority, not giving out haircuts!”

Victoria sighed. “It’s to be expected, I suppose.”

“What do you mean?” Bruce snapped, his patience clearly waning rapidly.

“Sometimes, when the Doctor’s been worried about Jamie, he decides to give him a haircut,” Victoria said hurriedly, her eyes wide at being addressed so brusquely. “It’s generally not a good idea to interrupt them.”

Turning back to her two friends, she saw that the Doctor was talking quietly to Jamie as he worked. Jamie had closed his eyes and was smiling softly, occasionally wincing as the Doctor pulled on his hair. They did not seem to be talking about anything related to their present predicament – instead, they looked as unworried as if they were safe in the TARDIS.

“Alright,” Bruce interrupted. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense. I’m tolerating you, Doctor. I don’t have to like you, and quite frankly I’m not as desperate for your help as Kent is. I don’t need you here, so I suggest you hurry up!”

Almost painfully slowly, the Doctor raised his head from his work, his face the very picture of indignation. “Well, I am sorry if I don’t work to your satisfaction, but I’m afraid that you’re going to have to be patient!” With a frustrated huff, he turned back to Jamie, ignoring Bruce’s outrage.

Turning away from the situation, Victoria suppressed another sigh. Something told her that, one day, this was going to get them all into terrible trouble.

* * *

“No! No, I willnae let ye!”

Emerging from the door to the library, Zoe was almost bowled over by what at first seemed to be a small tartan whirlwind, but which, at a second glance, revealed itself to be Jamie. He had knocked her stack of books out of her hands, and skidded to a halt, breathless with laughter. She watched as he gathered up the books, bundled them unceremoniously into her arms, and dashed off down a side corridor, leaving Zoe standing there, torn between amusement and confusion.

A few moments later, the Doctor jogged up to her, clutching a pair of scissors in one hand. “Oh, hello, Zoe,” he said, peering at her as if he had quite forgotten that she was in the TARDIS at all. “I thought you were going to be in the library for a little while longer.”

“I was,” Zoe replied. “But I heard – well, noises coming from the console room, and I thought something might be wrong.” She tilted her head to one side. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes!” the Doctor exclaimed, far more vehemently than she expected, causing her to take a step back in alarm. “He’s being completely unreasonable.”

“I’m no’ the one being unreasonable!” came a shout from the corridor Jamie had disappeared into. “You’re the one bein’ unreasonable!”

“You do realise we know where you are now?” the Doctor called back, grinning at Zoe, who merely frowned at him. “Just come over here and we’ll get it over and done with.”

For a moment, there was complete silence, broken by a cacophony of crashing noises heralding Jamie’s return to the corridor. His hair was in complete disarray, and his clothes were covered in dust, which floated about him in great clouds.

“Have ye even been in that cupboard in the last few centuries?” he asked, his expression more than a little sheepish. “There’s nothing in there but dust.”

Tutting and pocketing the scissors, the Doctor hurried over to him. He brushed down Jamie’s shoulders with an air of annoyance, belied by the arm he had wrapped affectionately around Jamie’s waist. “Come on, then,” he said softly, as if Jamie had suffered some terrible injury. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

“Ah – no,” Jamie protested, trying to resist being pulled down the corridor. “This is just an excuse tae get me to sit still! I willnae fall for that one again.”

“Of course it isn’t!” the Doctor replied, rather too innocently. “You’re a mess.”

“Not after what happened last time,” Jamie continued, ignoring him.

“I fully intended to press that button -”

“Ye almost turned the TARDIS inside out!”

“Well, yes, but that was only because you kept squirming -”

“You pulled my hair!”

“It was an accident, I assure you -”

They came to a complete halt in the middle of the hallway, arms folded, staring each other down, seeming to have quite forgotten that Zoe was still standing in the doorway to the library, utterly lost and feeling rather awkward. She wondered whether to interrupt their stand-off, but decided against it.

“Och, alright then,” Jamie conceded at last. “But you’re never cutting my hair in the console room again, ye hear me?”

“If you insist,” the Doctor agreed happily, seizing Jamie by the waist again and pulling him off with an expression of immense delight.

“I’ll never understand why ye enjoy this so much,” Jamie said, unable to hide his smile. He leant over to kiss the Doctor on the cheek. The Doctor blushed, but smiled in return, and Zoe watched them disappear into the TARDIS, shaking her head as they went. A quiet afternoon in the library seemed possible after all.


End file.
